Are Municipalities in Ontario now being “BRIBED” to accept “Green Energy Projects”?

McGuinty’s Green Energy Scam has been exposed for what it really is across Ontario…a complete DISASTER!

Municipalities, more than 80 of them out of 440 have placed “moratoriums” on any further Wind Turbine Development within their Township boundaries.

What to do? How can McGuinty get around all the outrage by Citizens?………………..last resorts like BRIBERY could be the ticket. When all else fails plopping bags of money into starving Municipalities coffers would do the trick!

Who’s leading the way here?. Skypower seems to be the “go to” guys here. This company was once the vanguard for Wind Turbine Leasing across Ontario in it’s infancy and was used to lock up leases for start up companies inside the Green Nightmare in massive developments of Wind Turbines across the Province. Skypower declared bankruptcy in it’s Wind segment of it’s company but has continued to operate within the other Green Energy Scam, Solar!

They have come up with a “points system” whereby Municipalities that show a positive move for Wind and Solar Development will earn points worth a certain amout of money per POINT!

Out and out Bribery comes to mind here……………what else does McGuinty have left?………………..nothing!

Among the myriad economic perversions created by Ontario’s Green Energy Act one of the more intriguing, and possibly treacherous, is the creation of a financial marketplace for municipal favours. The McGuinty government was noisily criticized when it laid low government regulations and environmental protections that enable intermittent electricity generators to move their wind and solar developments through the queue quicker and easier under the Green Energy Act.

Among its loudest critics were municipalities that had been cut out of the decisionmaking process. Neutered, municipal leaders could only grumble as the trucks laden with intermittent energy components manufactured offshore, rumbled into their communities, across their roads and bridges to be erected anywhere the developer pleased. Even endangered species are being forced relocate, or die, to make way for the industrialization of Ontario rural landscape in the name of “green” energy.

Yet it was the municipalities that caught the attention of the Ontario government in the last election—one in which the Liberals narrowly held onto power. Dalton McGuinty’s energy bureaucrats responded in March with a new points system in which FIT (Feed-in Tariff) applications will be prioritized based upon community support rather than first-come first-served. Specifically a developer earns two points, propelling them up the queue, if they can win approval for their project from the local council.

While Dalton McGuinty likely imagined the point system might ensure intermittent electricity plants were built in municipalities that share his ambition, developers quickly deduced that municipalities would happily trade those points for cash.

It wasn’t as though municipalities were being invited to the table; the province has been clear it will continue to override community wishes when, and if, it sees fit. Dalton McGuinty was merely throwing municipalities a bone to keep them occupied—at least out of the next election campaign.

The good news for this council is that the floor price for its support has been set. It need not embark on expensive consultation and external studies to determine the minimum value for falling in line with the developer and the province.

It can thank Skypower for that. The failed wind developer, now a solar developer, has offered this municipality (and others) $7,000 for every megawatt of power it installs, every year for a minimum of 20 years. Skypower’s new found “commitment to giving back” extends only to future applications however. It seems this “commitment” is only as deep as the advantage it can extract from the community.

At least this council knows what the points are worth.

Last week a landowner in Bloomfield stood before council seeking the two points they had to offer. He wants to build a 500 kW (approximately 6 acres) solar plant behind the former canning factory in the village. There was no mention of what he was willing to pay for the points.

According to the Skypower model, the Bloomfield landowner should be offering a minimum of $3,500 per year for at least 20 years (500 kW equals half a megawatt). Given that 500 kW projects earn the highest rate of all groundmounted solar projects under the new rules, the Bloomfield landowner’s margins should easily accommodate this fee.